Reincarnated in a Shounen Manga

Chapter 15: The Fate of a Side Character

The only thing I could hear was my heavy and rapid breathing. I had Mr Forts corpse still in my arms. He was missing everything below his stomach. His intestines and organs were spilling out into my hands. The sticky blood and the coppery smell were nauseating.

Everything had happened so fast. One second I was talking to Mr Fort, and the next his body was chopped mid-air by the pincers of a giant centipede. By the end of that second, I had caught half his corpse in my arms. His mouth had opened and closed a bit as if he wanted to tell me something.

This man had pushed me away and saved my life when the centipede burst out of the ground. Yet there was nothing I could do for him.

The centipede demon crawled out of the ground, showing its full body. The monster was as tall as a ten-story building, and its body was as thick as a bus. Its legs wriggled about in a disgusting manner. The black exoskeleton was thicker than the metal plating on an armored tank.

He was a high-class demon. There was no doubt in my mind about that.

It swung its body like a rope. The demon's size was enough to shatter every camp the students had put up. Moving its body like that created a strong wind that pushed me back, and Mr Forts body fell out of my arms.

Some of the students got caught in the attack and had their bodies splattered to the ground.

Everything until now had happened in less than two seconds. The centipede demons body was swinging my way at breakneck speeds.

Move! Move damn it or youre dead!!

Finally, I came back to my senses and crouched down under the swing. My mind was no longer even thinking about the people dying, the manga, or whatever. Every single cell in my body was thinking about survival.

Clang!... The sound of glass shattering rang out. The centipede demon had destroyed the barrier around the camp. The monsters from outside had swarmed in like a tidal wave of death.

In less than a second, death surrounded me.

It was now or never to activate my special ability!

"Taking out the person with the most dangerous ability is common sense," said an unfamiliar voice.

It was like a cold bucket of water had been poured on me. I stopped just as I was about to activate my ability, the monsters were still quite a bit far as I was in the middle of the camp.

The voice belonged to a man with a loose gray cloth around him. Looked like some kind of bastardized version of the kimono. He was handsome and thin. Like one of those K-Pop idols. From his appearance alone it looked like he could be beaten half to death by a teen.

But I knew who this person was. We never stood a chance against someone like him.

As the low-class demons who had been outside of the protective circle swarmed in. Professor Rana looked around, panicked. Her eyes landed on the man sitting nonchalantly on the tree, and her face paled. She too realized we now stood no chance of survival.

Unexpectedly, instead of running away or letting the nerves get to her. Rana took a deep breath, and her gaze sharpened. There was a resolute look to her as if she had come to terms with what was happening.

"Everyone! This is my last order and lesson as your teacher! Run! I will hold them back!" She brought out her signature frog.

She was planning on sacrificing her life to buy some time. A noble effort on her part, but sadly it was a useless one. Someone at her opponent's level wouldn't even be slowed down by her.

"I wouldn't recommend running away," the man in the tree said. As soon as he did, one of the student's heads was smashed in by a four-armed monkey that swung down from the trees. Another's spine was folded by some kind of rock demon. There were gruesome deaths.

A small army of glistening eyes from the trees stared down at us. As if we were only prey.

"Good. To you who stayed behind and listened to my advice get to survive a bit longer. By the way, every single one of those newcomer demons surrounding you is at least middle class. So you have no chance of escaping." The strange man sitting by the tree took out a long pipe and started smoking like a hobbit.

Despite all the monsters around, he seemed comfortable.

Even if I didn't have knowledge of the manga. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was happening. The man was controlling the monsters. "You can't escape. So show me something interesting."

My heart started beating crazily! Every pore in my body was breathing in the cold air! Thankfully due to my cautiousness, it had ensured my temporary survival. Unlike the others I hadn't put too much faith in the protective barrier. There was nothing I could have done for them. I hadnt known how this camp would be destroyed.

The heroine, Anika, was shooting out some beams from her fingers as if they were bullets. But it had only been a week so she wasn't anywhere near close to her blasts having enough piercing power to kill a middle-class demon.

"Hey!" I called out to the man. Even though the growls of the beasts and screams of people, I knew he could hear me. "Isn't this unfair? Having new students fight high-class and middle-class demons."

That man was someone who lived at the peak of human power. The one who was said to be closest to the Sage. At least those were the rumors going around when he was an Exorcist.

But there was one thing I knew. In his eyes we were rats. No, even that is too much, we were more like flies. What did the death of a fly mean to him? Not much. But if he wanted entertainment from our deaths, then he wouldn't play an overwhelming hand.

What was the fun of a one-sided slaughter? If everyone knew how the story would end, why even read it? It was like knowing everything about everything. If someone had omniscience they would be the most bored person in the world.

"Unfair? Life is unfair, kid." Though his words were as if he wouldn't stop attacking. But from the corner of my eye, I noticed some of the demons that were charging at me changed targets.

Of course, I acted as if I didn't notice this. It wasn't hard to continue acting scared. Because I was scared as hell! I knew within the blink of an eye, my opponent could change his mind.

Since the group compositions had changed, the story had too. Originally, this man was supposed to attack and slaughter almost everyone in the main character's group.

But it was clear now that even during the original story, he had chosen a group at random to confront. This was something I had taken into account, a 33% chance of danger.

I had rolled the dice and lost. Damn it!

Unlike the main character. I won't have a secret power-up if I let my feelings pour out. So I tried taking calculated breaths and keeping calm. Or at least give the illusion of being calm. "You're a Beast Master too, right? Won't you at least do a small favor for your junior?"

"Beast Master?" He raised a questioning brow and chuckled. "Kid. At my level, affinities don't matter too much. I'm the greatest there is and will ever be in any affinity. Sure, these monsters are under my control. But it doesn't matter what affinity I would have been born with. Greatness was something engraved in my very own existence."

The way he spoke was like someone who had 100% conviction in his words. As if he had just stated that the water was wet.

In short, he was a crazy bastard. On top of that if there was a photo next to the word Narcissism, then it would be a picture of him.

The man's lip curled upward. But it wasn't a smile, that much was clear by the look in his eyes. It looked more like a mocking sneer. "Try your best and survive, kid. I'm rooting for you."

Just like one would root for their favorite bug to win against a spider. Beasts immediately turned their eyes on me again.

Even the speech I had prepared didn't work. Well, that's life sometimes. You study a lot and even feel confident during the exam. Yet the results come out as dogshit!

Sometimes life makes one wonder if their efforts are even worth it. If I still end up dying after everything That's gonna suck.

But at least I went out on my terms Yeah, fuck that!

There's no way I'm going to even think of dying today! There's this whole awesome world I have to explore!

Since coming here the only thoughts in my mind have been to survive. But surviving just to constantly live on the edge of the blade wasn't something I wanted!

Dozens of demons charging against me. Thousands of thoughts popped into my mind. Trying to come up with some clever way to escape this. But it was all useless, I had been the one to make this choice.

It wasn't like I hadn't predicted something like this. I always worked under the assumption that things wouldn't work out.

"Ability, activate," I said the words out loud and closed my eyes to help me concentrate. The only sound I could hear was that of my heart. It was beating like an engine.

I was scared. I needed my fear to disappear, but that wasnt something I could just erase. I wanted to be calm, like when playing those games. It was easier to make a good move when someone was calm.

In my last life, I used to play chess online. It was there that I learned that bots had the ability to play better than humans. Even at the highest level, a human can make mistakes. They dont make the perfect move.

I had already given strict limitations on my ability. So it had to be quite a strong ability. Also, I had an affinity of over 60% so creating a strong ability was easier.

Sadly, due to one of the limitations I hadn't been able to test how it would go.

'[Give order.]'

A sudden sentence appeared in my mind. It wasn't a sound, but more like knowledge of that being asked.

Do I have to give it an order? What's that supposed to mean? I couldn't test things out now. I could feel the monster's breath getting closer to me. In a second or two, I would be ripped apart.

"Order: Help Me Survive."

After that, my body grew numb and I lost all sensation.

When creating a special ability. One would usually study a lot about it. Like how Professor Chain probably used a chain weapon before creating his ability.

So that's why people creating something usually use something they're very familiar with.

'[Order Accepted. Goal is survival.]'

'[Game Start]'

Immediately my view of things changed, and all feeling from my body was removed. I was looking at myself from a third-person point of view. Just like in those third-person games.

In my last life, I spent a lot of time doing many useless things for short-term enjoyment. Which was a waste of time I enjoyed. But that useless time had turned into the experience I needed for my ability.

At the corner of my 'eye'. I saw something strange.

Name:

I might have put too much of my gaming experience into this ability